Charlie gave Lauren his hand to steady her as she stepped onto the top of the steep stairs, and he followed her back down to the flat. As she reached the bottom, Hermione came out of the kitchen and raised her eyebrows, silently asking Lauren if everything was OK. Lauren nodded and smiled. "We've come to introduce Charlie to his son," she told Hermione. Charlie stepped off the bottom stair and gave Hermione a big smile.

"Have I ever told you I love you?" he asked.

"You have now," she laughed, stepping into his arms to give him a hug. "I love you too. Are you OK?"

Charlie leaned in, though he spoke loudly enough that Lauren could still hear. "My head is spinning so fast I can't keep up with all of this but, yeah, I'm very OK."

"They're in the bedroom," Hermione smiled at them both and then directed her next words to Lauren. "Elliot keeps asking to have a sleepover in our bed tonight. Which is fine with us if you're alright with that, but we've told him he needs to ask you." She looked at her brother-in-law. "And of course he might change his mind once he's met Charlie..."

Lauren glanced between Hermione and Charlie. "I'm not sure what to say…"

"You don't have to decide now," replied Hermione, raising her hands to show that she wasn't trying to add any pressure. "I just wanted to let you know." She waved her arm toward the bedroom door. "Don't let me keep you…"

Lauren entered the room first. Elliot was sat on the floor in between Fred's long outstretched legs, his little back leaning against Fred's tummy. Fred had transfigured some sort of terrain out of quilts and pillows and was making a small herd of soft toys ramble over it with his wand, bossily shepherded by Graham the pygmy puff. Upon seeing Lauren and Charlie enter, Fred spoke softly in the boy's ear. "Hey bud, there's your mum. I'm going to get us a drink. You're in charge of Graham and the rabbits." Elliot leaned forward and nodded, his face serious with the responsibility that had been bestowed upon him.

Fred gave Charlie a quick brotherly hug as he left. Charlie hesitated a bit, until Lauren led him further into the room. Now that this rather unexpected moment had come, the usually confident dragon keeper wasn't sure what to do or say; he could only stare at Elliot in wonder. Lauren sat on the floor beside Elliot, crossing her legs and then patting the floor with her hand. Obediently, Charlie lowered himself to sit down on her other side.

"Mum!" Elliot was excited to see her.

"Elliot!" she used the same tone of voice and the toddler grinned. "How are you doing?"

"Good. Fred made a rabbit patch. That's Graham." He pointed to a small, moving ball of purple fluff. "And we read a book!"

"That's brilliant. Hello Graham. Are you having fun, then?"

"Yes. Can I sleep in here? Miney said I have to ask you."

"Maybe … I need to tell you something first though. And introduce you to someone important."

Elliot turned to look at Charlie, as if only just computing that someone else was in the room. The redhead was still staring at his son in wonder and amazement. The little boy looked so like him, and yet he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. "Hello. Who are you?" Elliot asked.

"I'm Charlie," Charlie said, not quite finding his normal speaking voice.

"You look like Fred." Elliot turned and reached out a hand to redirect a rabbit on its journey.

Charlie smiled. "Well Fred's my brother. That might be why."

Elliot turned back towards Charlie and stared for a moment, taking that in and looking Charlie up and down. "You have hair like me and Fred."

Charlie fingered one of his own locks. "So I do, mate." He looked at Lauren, not quite sure where to take this. The emotion of meeting a son that he didn't even know about an hour ago was getting a bit much. Not for the first time that evening he hoped that his brother might have some firewhisky knocking about in the flat to calm the nerves that he couldn't seem to suppress, not to mention the tears that he could feel pricking at his eyelids. Gods, he could throw himself around confidently in the vicinity of a thirty-foot dragon and yet here he was feeling anxious in front of a small boy.

"Hey gorgeous boy, come here…" Lauren reached out her arms and Elliot crawled up onto her lap. She turned him so he faced her, and stroked his hair. "I have something important to tell you, lovely. There's a reason Charlie looks like you. It's because he's your daddy." She paused between each sentence to allow it to sink in. "He's been away for a while, helping … ummm…" she paused. It might not be a good plan to mention dragons for Elliot to announce to his friends back home, especially given his already well-developed love and knowledge of the animal kingdom. "Well he looks after big lizards, but for now he's here and he really wants to meet you."

"Like dinosaurs and dragons?" Elliot stared in amazement at Charlie, his wide eyes causing a smile to break out on his mother's face.

"Yes, I suppose a bit." She'd just have to tell people that he was exaggerating when he announced this to his friends next week.

"Wow!" Elliot's eyes grew even wider and he looked at Charlie, impressed. Then his little hand reached out to touch Charlie's face. "Why you crying?" he asked, with some surprise.

"I'm really happy to be meeting you, Elliot," Charlie told him, tentatively reaching towards the little boy's hand with his own. In response, Elliot leaned forward, holding both arms out to Charlie to be lifted off his mother's lap and onto Charlie's. Instinctively, Charlie did as his son bid, and scooped the little boy into his arms, holding him close to his chest. "Hi…" Charlie breathed in the scent of his son, his tears flowing freely now. Elliot rested his cheek on Charlie's chest and patted him reassuringly. Lauren scooted closer and put her own arms around them both.

"You're going to make me cry too, Charlie," she told him. Charlie's only response was to lift one arm and bring Lauren closer into his side. He kissed her cheek, and she snuggled her face into his neck, kissing Elliot as she did. "This is all a bit much, isn't it?!"

Charlie laughed and nodded and, for a few minutes, the little family just cuddled and held each other. Charlie stroked Elliot's hair, marvelling again at how much the little boy looked like him and feeling an overwhelming desire to just hold his son and feel his presence. Elliot's patience for that ran out after a couple of minutes though, and he pulled back slightly, looking into Charlie's eyes. "What colour are your dragons?" he asked, and Charlie gave a big, deep chuckle.

"Well…" He looked at Lauren for direction, realising that this might be hard for her to explain when they returned to their usual world. But she nodded and shrugged, letting Charlie know it was OK to answer. Elliot was already known amongst their friends to have a keen mind and an active imagination. She would figure out the explanations later. "Let me think. Some are grey, some are brown and some are green," he told his son.

"Are any purple, like Graham?" Elliot asked seriously, pointing to the pygmy puff.

Charlie considered that for a moment. "No, not that I've ever seen. Their colours help them to hide a bit, in the forest and the mountains. Purple wouldn't be very good for that."

"I see," Elliot said seriously. Then he touched Charlie's arm. "Do you want to meet my rabbit too?"

Lauren smiled at Charlie. "Only special people get an official introduction to Mr Rabbit."

Elliot scrambled off Charlie's lap to collect his rabbit and bring it back to show his father, climbing back up onto Charlie's legs to carry out formal introductions. Lauren took a deep breath; this had gone well so far. She tentatively picked up the little purple creature who was intent on following Elliot. "And this is Graham," Elliot told his dad, carefully taking the pygmy puff from his mother's hand and cradling it safely against his chest, just as Fred had taught him, so he could show Charlie.

"Elliot loves creatures of all kinds," Lauren explained. "I always suspected he inherited that trait from you…"

Charlie grinned down at her. "I'd say there's more than a chance of that, love." Turning back to his son, he felt the need to reassure him that he was staying around and would be in Elliot's future. "I could take you to see more animals sometime, if you like?"

"Yes!" Elliot liked very much.

Lauren smiled up at Charlie. "Well, now you're really won his heart."

There was a soft knock on the bedroom door. "May we come in yet, or do you need a bit longer?" Fred asked, opening it just a tiny bit.

"Of course you can come in; it's your bedroom," said Lauren, smiling widely.

"Yes, but it's your moment," replied Hermione, who appeared behind Fred with a tray of champagne glasses. For Lauren's sake, she had decided to carry rather than levitate them. "We don't want to intrude but we had this in the fridge, left over from our wedding and we thought maybe you might like to celebrate this moment … and also we reckoned the two of you could probably use a drink…"

Charlie rolled his eyes before he wiped them. "Seriously, you are the best sister-in-law ever!"

"Well this one was Fred's idea; I just carried the tray!" Hermione squatted down so that Charlie and Lauren could take a glass each. She had brought another for Elliot; a transfigured plastic champagne flute filled with sparkling water, so that he also had bubbles, and Fred took it from the tray and helped the little boy to hold it. Elliot gave him the biggest smile. It was clear that he had inherited the friendliness and exuberance of both his parents.

"He's my daddy," he told Fred proudly, patting Charlie's chest again and bringing fresh tears to the older man's eyes.

"That is so great," said Fred, a bit close to tears himself as he took his own glass in his other hand. "You'll be able to go to the park with him." He leaned down and gave his brother a quick squeeze around the shoulders.

Elliot nodded. "We're going to see animals." Not needing a response from Fred, Elliot leaned forward to take a sip of his drink and then sneezed.

Lauren tried not to laugh too much, but the sheer relief that she felt tumbled out in a relieved chuckle. "Not sure you've had fizzy water before…"

"I want to make a toast," said Hermione, putting the tray on the floor as she raised her glass. "To family…"

Fred slipped his arm around her as Lauren and Charlie looked at each other before meeting Fred and Hermione's eyes in turn and toasting each other. "To family…"

"I still want to sleep with Fred and Miney," Elliot told Charlie seriously. "And Graham."

"Graham's the real draw, it's got bugger all to do with us…" Fred whispered to his brother.

"OK," Charlie laughed. He reached forward and touched his son's cheek with his fingers, still not quite believing what was happening. He understood that they needed to focus on Elliot's needs, not his own. "I'm cool with that, but your mum's in charge."

Lauren looked at Charlie. She felt much more relaxed now than she had an hour ago. They still had a lot to discuss, but thus far it had gone well. The idea of an evening of takeaway and wine now sounded really good. And after that? She had no idea. The thought of spending the night in Charlie's arms while Elliot stayed with Fred and Hermione was beyond appealing on a physical level. But Lauren knew that probably wasn't a good idea. She wasn't entirely sure it was fair to have kissed him on the roof, but there was no sense spending energy on regret. Charlie was clearly ready to commit to a relationship right now, but Lauren wasn't sure if and how that could work. But then, if she didn't talk to Charlie about it, she would never figure that out, and she was being offered the perfect chance to begin that conversation.

"Is that what you'd like?" she checked with Elliot, who nodded seriously. She made up her mind and mimicked Charlie's tone. "OK then. We'll see how you feel at bedtime, but I'm cool with it if it's really OK with Hermione and Fred."

"We'd love to," said Hermione. "Just be aware that George will be over for breakfast first thing tomorrow. Ange works on a Saturday and he's in the habit of coming here. He's desperate to meet you both, though."

"I'd love to meet him too," said Lauren. "If there really are that many of you then it'll be easier to get everyone's names straight if I meet one new person at a time."

"I'll find you a Weasley family photo," promised Fred, "and you can swot up ahead of time. Though you'll recognise George without; he's the one who's just an ear less good looking than me!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Lauren, Fred and I are going out for a walk to get dinner in a bit."

After their toast, Hermione and Fred had left the three of them alone again, but Hermione wandered back into the bedroom a while later once she saw that Charlie was carrying Elliot up to the roof to show him the view and see if they could spot any early evening bugs on the flowers. She began collecting up the champagne glasses – again by hand, so as not to overface Lauren with too much magic all at once – and setting rabbits back in the corner of the room, careful to pick Elliot's special bunny up and tuck him into the bed. She didn't want to cast a finite and transfigure the other rabbits back into whatever Fred had made them from just yet, for fear of freaking out their visitors. "You could join us if you liked, or all stay here, or we could take Elliot if you and Charlie want a bit more time to chat alone? Fred's good with kids; he's had lots of practice."

Lauren nodded. "I can see that. I'll check with Charlie but I think Elliot would love an outing, and if I give him a wash and put him into his PJs first, he'd probably drop off in his carrier. It's not far off his bedtime anyway."

"Great. If Fred carries him, there's no chance Elliot will get cold; Fred's a human radiator!"

A short while later, they were all set. Charlie had agreed that it would be good for he and Lauren to have a bit more time to talk together and, back in the living room, Lauren helped Fred put Elliot's carrier on and the freshly washed, pyjama-clad Elliot in. The little boy – who had loved having his dad help him have a bath and get ready for bed – wanted to face his other new redheaded friend and settled down with one pudgy hand curled around the straps of his carrier while he patted Fred's shoulder with the other. "Gee up, Freddie," he was saying, kicking his feet back and forth, keen to go on his next adventure.

"You get to ride a bit higher than usual tonight, lovely!" Lauren said to her son as she stood on tiptoes to say goodbye. Fred was more than a foot taller than her, and he bent down to allow Elliot to lean over and give his mum a kiss. She wondered whether she should suggest that he kiss Charlie too, torn between encouraging their relationship and allowing Elliot to take it at his own pace, when Elliot himself made a decision.

"Bye, Daddy!" he said to Charlie, opening and closing his fingers in a wave. Charlie made the same movement with his own hand; Elliot addressing him in that way was more than enough for now. Not for the first time that evening, Lauren was grateful that Elliot had always been so open to new friends; had he been a shy child, things could have gone very differently. Still, she mused, he had his moments and Charlie would no doubt get to experience a full-blown temper tantrum before too much more time had passed.

"Good practice, eh?" Charlie teased Fred as they left, before turning back to Lauren. Fred winked. He was more than ready for fatherhood, and the only thing holding him back was his love for Hermione and the knowledge that she needed more time. Hermione was secretly rather enjoying playing families too, though, and she took Fred's hand so they could all walk together.

"Do you need money?" Lauren asked Fred, as they started for the door.

Fred grinned and shook his head. "Your money won't work where we're going," he teased. "You said you were up for trying magical fish and chips, right?"

"Oh." Lauren didn't know what to say to that, and Charlie reached into his pocket, but Hermione stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"We'll get it, Charlie, don't be silly. You can treat us next time."

Charlie nodded and the three set off for the fish and chip shop, but Hermione stopped Fred halfway through the joke shop. "Fred, do you think I should cast a notice-me-not charm over you? If we walk down Diagon Alley like this, with a redheaded child, it'll be all over tomorrow's Prophet and Mum'll be trying to floo over to the flat before we've even woken up."

"I knew it was a good idea to marry a witch with a brain like yours," Fred stood still so that Hermione could cast the spell on him. Elliot would be hidden too as a result, but they didn't want to use magic on him directly without first asking Lauren. Suitably cloaked, they decided to take the long way round in order to give Charlie and Lauren plenty of time to chat.

Back in the flat, Charlie sat down and patted the space beside him on the sofa. "How are you doing, sweets?"

"Honestly? It's all completely surreal and I think I may have lost my mind, but you're all lovely people and I'm warm and I've been promised chips and more wine, so I don't care. It's nice and cosy here, in my delusion. What about you, though, Charlie? You're the one who's become an instant father…" Lauren sat down, tucking her feet up underneath her again (for they wouldn't reach the floor anyway) and settling back into the corner of the sofa.

"I know what you mean. A few hours ago, I was at home and in my normal life, which I admit is not very normal to most people even in my world, by the way, but it's all I know, and now not only has my wildest dream come true in finding you again, but I've discovered I'm a dad..."

Lauren gave a soft laugh. "You've got a new son in your life, I've got a crazy dragon keeping wizard in mine." She went silent, her brain trying to run three different trains of thought at once.

"Talk to me, draga mea…" She had forgotten the Romanian term of endearment that he used to use in the deep of the night, when they had lain together and looked up at the stars. It always sounded so sexy when he said it in his deep voice, and her thoughts drifted back to her last night in Romania; the night on which she was fairly sure they had conceived their baby boy.

"I'm fine, Charlie. It's all a bit … big, but I've handled a lot over the past few years and we'll be ok."

"I like the sound of the 'we'."

She turned to face him. Charlie nearly leaned in to kiss her again, but he saw the serious look on her face and pulled back. "Charlie, I need some time to process this. I'm sorry, because I know you want to dive in, but I need to think about what this all means for Elliot, and … and the whole wizard world thing is quite a lot to take, to be honest."

"OK…" Charlie wasn't sure where this was going yet, but he was going to listen hard and make sure he didn't miss his chance. "Tell me more, love. Just talk to me; you can say whatever you want. I want to be here for you, no matter what."

Lauren's eyes flickered with so many emotions that Charlie couldn't read them. "That's the trouble, Charlie. I don't know what I want. I mean, I do know some things, but I'm really conflicted."

"Go on, love," he encouraged, when she paused.

"I can't deny I still want you physically, Charlie." Her hand reached to settle on his leg. "I've never stopped feeling that way about you. But I don't know if it's fair to be with you in that way if you want something more and I'm not yet sure. And you're Elliot's dad, so I want you in our lives; to see him as much as you want and have a relationship with us. I just don't know how to go about bridging the two, or how it could work…"

Charlie had forgotten how much he loved to listen to Lauren analysing things. He held her hand, giving her space, knowing that she would continue chatting it through to herself if he let her.

"Would making a commitment be such a bad thing?" he asked gently.

"You didn't want that before, though; why do you want it now?"

Charlie shrugged. "Like I told you on the roof. After you left, I realised you had taken my heart with you. I wanted you before I knew about Elliot and now I want to help raise my son too. I want to make more babies with you, for us to be a family. I'm all in, whatever it takes, however long you need. Your world or mine, or both; we'll figure it out." Charlie had never felt so seriously about anything. He had been calculating possibilities and considering options ever since Hermione had told him that Lauren was alive, found and likely still single. And since hearing about Elliot, his processing had further increased. "But I'm not going to pressure you, sweets. It was me that left you in the lurch, albeit not intentionally, so I hardly have the right to call the shots…"

"It's not about that, Charlie." Lauren shook her head, looking a bit upset at his comment. "You know I'm not into game playing and point scoring and all that crap."

"I do," he said. "I wasn't meaning to suggest that, love."

"I know." She took a deep breath.

"How did you feel about me when you found out you were pregnant?" Part of him was afraid to hear the answer, but he wanted to know.

"So conflicted…" There was a long pause, and Charlie again held space for her to think. When she continued, her voice was quiet. "I got home and … I thought I had fallen for you, and at first I was really cross with myself. I had only gone there to get a decent break before I went back into a new research project. Which I then had to rejig because I found out I was pregnant, which made me wonder if it was just the hormones that made me feel that way."

Charlie winced. He really hoped that was not her final conclusion.

"Some nights I laid awake wishing I was back in your arms. Some nights I felt really cross with you for not having got in touch and because I couldn't find you to tell you. Mostly I just felt so much love for our baby and I didn't even know how I felt about you anymore. I was confused, Charlie, because my work is all about stories and I didn't know what to make of our story. I didn't know how I would tell it to Elliot when the time came, because I didn't know whether I would ever find out the ending."

Tears were running down Lauren's face now. "I couldn't reconcile the loving, lovely man who made me feel so good and who I was sure would phone me up out of the blue one day and invite me for a drink – just as friends, sure, but that would be a great basis to be parents, I reckoned – with … with the man who just disappeared and couldn't be found and who made me wonder who he really was..." She took a deep breath, trying to control her voice. "Charlie, I don't know what I think or feel and I don't know how to suddenly make sense of it and I'm sorry, but on top of all of this you're all telling me you're a bloody dragon keeper and my child is a wizard and I just don't have a frame of reference for any of it." She gave a deep sigh.

There was only one thing that Charlie could do. He stood, reached down, picked Lauren up and sat back down with her cuddled in his arms. Rocking her gently, he whispered into her ear, "I'm so sorry, love. It will be OK, I promise, I'll help you in any way you need it, and no pressure from me at all."

"No, I'm sorry…" Lauren tried to sit up and compose herself, but Charlie cradled her and made soft, back-of-the-throat roaring noises of the kind that he used on his dragons. "What are you doing, Charlie?"

"I'm reassuring you, sweets…"

She laughed despite her tears. "Is that noise reassuring for dragons?"

"Yup. The baby ones especially. Is it working for you?"

"Only because it's so weird that it took my mind off everything else!"

"Hey, success is success, whatever the route..."

"Let me sit up and get a tissue, Charlie."

"OK, but let me." He produced a clean hanky from his own pocket and handed it to her, remembering the night, just a couple of weeks ago, when he had comforted Hermione after her pre-wedding nightmare. It seemed so long ago, and so much had happened since then. Was life ever going to progress at a normal pace again?

As Lauren wiped her eyes and blew her nose, they heard the faint jangling noise which indicated that Fred, Hermione and Elliot had re-entered the shop, giving them only a couple more minutes of alone time.

"Love, how about we talk more later? I really want to help you figure it out, and I promise not to put pressure on you."

"OK, but if you and I spend the night together here then everyone's going to think we're a thing, including Elliot, and I don't want that pressure for either of us."

"That was never the plan. I'm sleeping on the sofa, love, or I'll go to my mum and dad's if you'd prefer." She raised her eyebrows and Charlie rushed to reassure her. "I camp out all the time for work, and you should see the house Fred and I grew up in; it's like musical beds … I can sleep anywhere."

Lauren nodded. "It's not that I don't want you physically, Charlie…"

"I know, love." He grinned. "I'm pretty hard to resist!"

Lauren raised her eyebrows and met Charlie's gaze with a smile. "I remember…" Oh fuck; she needed to resist the temptation to flirt with him. But sitting in his lap, feeling his familiar body next to hers, it was so hard – no pun or reminder intended – to do that. Sighing, Lauren hoped she could soon reconcile the complex feelings she had for this man and her concerns about whether and how their worlds could ever merge.